If our love, belief and affection are

confined to our nearest kith and kin, that

will be the lowest kind of selfish love. On
the other hand, if you stretch a little
beyond the narrow region of your family
and extend your faith and belief to your
countrymen, then it becomes
intermediate. If you treat the entire
world as one and regard all the people
living in it as one, and extend your faith
and sympathy to all of them, then it is the
highest kind of selfless love. Gradually we
should move from the limited circle of
our family to the wider circle of our
country and then expand to the Universe.
When we talk of humanity, it should not
be confined to a small group of people.
There is only one caste, and that is the
caste of humanity, and when we talk of
humanity, we must extend our selfless
love to all species in the Universe too.
(Summer Roses on Blue Mountains, 1976,
Ch 15)
SSSB